Signal transmission method, user equipment, and base station

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a signal transmission method, user equipment, and a base station. The method includes: determining a feature parameter of UE; and according to the feature parameter of the UE and a preset correspondence, determining a coverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signal, and/or determining a second signal that the UE supports transmitting, and/or determining a function, supported by the UE, of a third signal. The present invention can optimize resource utilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, and reduce power consumption.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/160,988, filed on May 20, 2016, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/CN2013/087710, filed on Nov. 22, 2013.All of the afore-mentioned patent applications are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field ofcommunications technologies, and in particular, to a signal transmissionmethod, user equipment, and a base station.

BACKGROUND

In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTEAdvanced, LTE-A) system, user equipment (UE) generally has differentvalues of a feature parameter at different moments. Herein, the featureparameter of the UE refers to: a value or information used to measurequality of communication between the UE and a base station, and/or avalue or information used to measure quality of a channel between the UEand a base station, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE.

For example, when the UE communicates with the base station under a poorchannel condition at a particular moment, greater coverage enhancementis required for signal transmission between the UE and the base station;in this case, more resource overheads may be used to improve reliabilityof service transmission. When the channel condition is good, lesscoverage enhancement is required for signal transmission between the UEand the base station; in this case, reliable service transmission can beperformed by using fewer resource overheads. However, in the prior art,for example, when coverage enhancement is performed for signaltransmission between the UE and the base station, a current coverageenhancement value is not considered; instead, a uniform coverageenhancement technology is used to perform coverage enhancement. Besides,during coverage enhancement, the UE or the base station may supporttransmission of same signals, and support same functions of the signals.

That is, in the prior art, when the feature parameter of the UE changes,the UE or the base station uses a uniform coverage enhancementtechnology to perform coverage enhancement, supports transmitting samesignals, and supports same functions of the signals, which produces alarge quantity of system resource overheads, results in low resourceutilization, and increases complexity of service processing by the UE orthe base station. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a new method toresolve the foregoing problem.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a signal transmissionmethod, user equipment, and a base station, which can optimize resourceutilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, and reducepower consumption.

A first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides userequipment UE that includes a first determining unit, configured todetermine a feature parameter of the UE, where the feature parameter ofthe UE refers to: a value or information used to measure communicationquality of the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channelquality of the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE. A first processing unit is configured to: according to thefeature parameter of the UE and a preset correspondence, determine acoverage enhancement technology used by the UE to transmit a firstsignal, and/or determine a second signal that the UE supportstransmitting, and/or determine a function, supported by the UE, of athird signal.

With reference to the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the first aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the first aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the first aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, the first determining unit is configured to:determine the feature parameter of the UE according to receivedsignaling that indicates the feature parameter of the UE, or determinethe feature parameter of the UE according to whether a downlink signalcan be correctly received, or determine the feature parameter of the UEby measuring a received downlink signal, or determine the featureparameter of the UE autonomously.

With reference to the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the first aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first processing unit isconfigured to: determine, according to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a coverage enhancement technology that isused to transmit the first signal and that corresponds to the featureparameter of the UE; and/or determine, according to a presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, a second signal to which the featureparameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmission of the secondsignal is supported by the feature parameter; and/or determine,according to a preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asupported function of the third signal, a supported function that iscorresponding to the feature parameter of the UE and is of the thirdsignal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the first aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by a base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the first aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greater thanthe feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a second coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where the firstcoverage enhancement technology and the second coverage enhancementtechnology are different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability. The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different. The preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal is: if thefeature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the UE supports using a function in a first function set ofthe third signal, and if the feature parameter is greater than thefeature parameter threshold, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the first aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the UEuses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit the firstsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, where the first coverage enhancementtechnology and the second coverage enhancement technology are differenttechnologies for improving signal transmission reliability. The presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported is: if the feature parameter belongs to thefirst feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 1, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different. The presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter belongs to the firstfeature parameter set, the UE supports a function in a first functionset of the third signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the first aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the first aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thefirst aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2, thefirst function set, the second function set, the first feature parameterset and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the first aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the first aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the first aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the first aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

A second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides abase station, where the base station includes: a second determiningunit, configured to determine a feature parameter of user equipment UE,where the feature parameter of the UE refers to: a value or informationused to measure communication quality of the UE, and/or a value orinformation used to measure channel quality of the UE, and/orinformation used to reflect a service feature of the UE; and a secondprocessing unit, configured to: according to the feature parameter ofthe UE and a preset correspondence, determine a coverage enhancementtechnology used by the base station to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermine a second signal that the base station supports transmitting,and/or determine a function, supported by the base station, of a thirdsignal.

With reference to the second aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the second aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the second aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the second aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the second aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, the second determining unit is configured to:determine the feature parameter of the UE according to receivedsignaling that indicates the feature parameter of the UE, or determinethe feature parameter of the UE according to whether an uplink signalcan be correctly received, or determine the feature parameter of the UEby measuring a received uplink signal, or determine the featureparameter of the UE autonomously.

With reference to the second aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the second aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the second processing unit isconfigured to: determine, according to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a coverage enhancement technology that isused to transmit the first signal and that corresponds to the featureparameter of the UE; and/or determine, according to a presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, a second signal to which the featureparameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmission of the secondsignal is supported by the feature parameter; and/or determine,according to a preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asupported function of the third signal, a supported function that iscorresponding to the feature parameter of the UE and is of the thirdsignal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the second aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by the base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the second aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the base station uses a first coverage enhancement technologyto transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greaterthan the feature parameter threshold, the base station uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where thefirst coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are different technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability; the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 1, and if the feature parameter is greater than the featureparameter threshold, the base station supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different; and the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter is less than or equal tothe feature parameter threshold, the base station supports using afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the second aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the basestation uses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the base station uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability; the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different; and the preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a supported function of the third signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, thebase station supports a function in a first function set of the thirdsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to the second featureparameter set, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the second aspectof the embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the second aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thesecond aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or moreof the feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2,the first function set, the second function set, the first featureparameter set and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured bythe base station by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the second aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the second aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the second aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the second aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

A third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides UEthat includes: a first memory, configured to store a presetcorrespondence; and a first processor, configured to determine a featureparameter of the UE, where the feature parameter of the UE refers to: avalue or information used to measure communication quality of the UE,and/or a value or information used to measure channel quality of the UE,and/or information used to reflect a service feature of the UE; andaccording to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, determine a coverage enhancement technology used by theUE to transmit a first signal, and/or determine a second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determine a function, supported by theUE, of a third signal.

With reference to the third aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the third aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the third aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the third aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the third aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, the first processor is configured to: determinethe feature parameter of the UE according to received signaling thatindicates the feature parameter of the UE, or determine the featureparameter of the UE according to whether a downlink signal can becorrectly received, or determine the feature parameter of the UE bymeasuring a received downlink signal, or determine the feature parameterof the UE autonomously.

With reference to the third aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the third aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first processor is configuredto: determine, according to a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmitthe first signal, a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal and that corresponds to the feature parameterof the UE; and/or determine, according to a preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or determine, according to a presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal, a supported function that is corresponding to thefeature parameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the third aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by a base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the third aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greater thanthe feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a second coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where the firstcoverage enhancement technology and the second coverage enhancementtechnology are different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability; the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different; and the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal is: if thefeature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the UE supports using a function in a first function set ofthe third signal, and if the feature parameter is greater than thefeature parameter threshold, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the third aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the UEuses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit the firstsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, where the first coverage enhancementtechnology and the second coverage enhancement technology are differenttechnologies for improving signal transmission reliability; the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported is: if the feature parameter belongs to thefirst feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 1, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different; and the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter belongs to the firstfeature parameter set, the UE supports a function in a first functionset of the third signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the third aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the third aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thethird aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2, thefirst function set, the second function set, the first feature parameterset and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the third aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the third aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the third aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the third aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

A fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides abase station that includes: a second memory, configured to store apreset correspondence; and a second processor, configured to determine afeature parameter of user equipment UE, where the feature parameter ofthe UE refers to: a value or information used to measure communicationquality of the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channelquality of the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE; and according to the feature parameter of the UE and thepreset correspondence, determine a coverage enhancement technology usedby the base station to transmit a first signal, and/or determine asecond signal that the base station supports transmitting, and/ordetermine a function, supported by the base station, of a third signal.

With reference to the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the fourth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the fourth aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the fourth aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, the second processor is configured to: determinethe feature parameter of the UE according to received signaling thatindicates the feature parameter of the UE, or determine the featureparameter of the UE according to whether an uplink signal can becorrectly received, or determine the feature parameter of the UE bymeasuring a received downlink signal, or determine the feature parameterof the UE autonomously.

With reference to the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the fourth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the second processor is configuredto: determine, according to a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmitthe first signal, a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal and that corresponds to the feature parameterof the UE; and/or determine, according to a preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or determine, according to a presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal, a supported function that is corresponding to thefeature parameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the fourth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by the base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the fourth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the base station uses a first coverage enhancement technologyto transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greaterthan the feature parameter threshold, the base station uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where thefirst coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are different technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability; the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 1, and if the feature parameter is greater than the featureparameter threshold, the base station supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different; and the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter is less than or equal tothe feature parameter threshold, the base station supports using afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the fourth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the basestation uses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the base station uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability; the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different; and the preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a supported function of the third signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, thebase station supports a function in a first function set of the thirdsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to the second featureparameter set, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the fourth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the fourth aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thefourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or moreof the feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2,the first function set, the second function set, the first featureparameter set and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured bythe base station by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the fourth aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the fourth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the fourth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

A fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides asignal transmission method, including: determining, by user equipmentUE, a feature parameter of the UE, where the feature parameter of the UErefers to: a value or information used to measure communication qualityof the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channel qualityof the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service feature of theUE. The method further includes, according to the feature parameter ofthe UE and a preset correspondence, determining, by the UE, a coverageenhancement technology used by the UE to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermining a second signal that the UE supports transmitting, and/ordetermining a function, supported by the UE, of a third signal.

With reference to the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the fifth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the fifth aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the fifth aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, a method for determining, by the UE, the featureparameter of the UE is: determining, by the UE, the feature parameter ofthe UE according to received signaling that indicates the featureparameter of the UE, or determining, by the UE, the feature parameter ofthe UE according to whether a downlink signal can be correctly received,or determining, by the UE, the feature parameter of the UE by measuringa received downlink signal, or determining, by the UE, the featureparameter of the UE autonomously.

With reference to the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the fifth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, a method for determining, by theUE according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the UE totransmit the first signal, and/or determining the second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determining the function, supported bythe UE, of the third signal is: determining, by the UE according to apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal, acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal and that corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE; and/ordetermining, by the UE according to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or determining, by the UE according to apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal, a supported function that is correspondingto the feature parameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the fifth aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by a base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the fifth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greater thanthe feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a second coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where the firstcoverage enhancement technology and the second coverage enhancementtechnology are different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability; the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different; and the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal is: if thefeature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the UE supports using a function in a first function set ofthe third signal, and if the feature parameter is greater than thefeature parameter threshold, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the fifth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the UEuses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit the firstsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, where the first coverage enhancementtechnology and the second coverage enhancement technology are differenttechnologies for improving signal transmission reliability; the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported is: if the feature parameter belongs to thefirst feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 1, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different; and the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter belongs to the firstfeature parameter set, the UE supports a function in a first functionset of the third signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to thesecond feature parameter set, the UE supports using a function in asecond function set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the fifth aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the fifth aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thefifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2, thefirst function set, the second function set, the first feature parameterset and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the fifth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the fifth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the fifth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

A sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention provides asignal transmission method, including: determining, by a base station, afeature parameter of user equipment UE, where the feature parameter ofthe UE refers to: a value or information used to measure communicationquality of the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channelquality of the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE; and according to the feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, determining, by the base station, a coverage enhancementtechnology used by the base station to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermining a second signal that the base station supports transmitting,and/or determining a function, supported by the base station, of a thirdsignal.

With reference to the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a first implementation manner of the sixth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the feature parameter of the UEincludes at least one of the following: a resource, a resource index, alevel, a level index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index,a repetition level, a repetition level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a coverageenhancement value, an index of a coverage enhancement range, a path lossvalue, an index of a path loss range, a reference signal received powervalue, an index of a reference signal received power range, a referencesignal received quality value, an index of a reference signal receivedquality range, a channel quality information value, an index of achannel quality information range, a service type, an index of a servicetype, a power saving requirement, an index of a power savingrequirement, a delay requirement, an index of a delay requirement, aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, an index of aquantity of times of detecting a pre-specified channel, a mobilityrequirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

With reference to the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention or the first implementation manner of the sixth aspect, in asecond implementation manner of the sixth aspect of the embodiments ofthe present invention, a method for determining, by the base station,the feature parameter of the UE is: determining, by the base station,the feature parameter of the UE according to received signaling thatindicates the feature parameter of the UE, or determining, by the basestation, the feature parameter of the UE according to whether an uplinksignal can be correctly received, or determining, by the base station,the feature parameter of the UE by measuring a received uplink signal,or determining, by the base station, the feature parameter of the UEautonomously.

With reference to the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in a third implementation manner of the sixth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, a method for determining, by thebase station according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the basestation to transmit the first signal, and/or determining the secondsignal that the base station supports transmitting, and/or determiningthe function, supported by the base station, of the third signal is:determining, by the base station according to a preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology thatis used to transmit the first signal, a coverage enhancement technologythat is used to transmit the first signal and that corresponds to thefeature parameter of the UE; and/or determining, by the base stationaccording to a preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported, a second signal towhich the feature parameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmissionof the second signal is supported by the feature parameter; and/ordetermining, by the base station according to a preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a supported function of the thirdsignal, a supported function that is corresponding to the featureparameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

With reference to the third implementation manner of the sixth aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention, in a fourth implementationmanner of the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence is a preset function relationship, a presettable relationship, or a preset specification relationship, and thepreset correspondence is preconfigured by the base station by usingsignaling or is preset by a system.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the sixth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a fifth implementationmanner of the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to a feature parameterthreshold, the base station uses a first coverage enhancement technologyto transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter is greaterthan the feature parameter threshold, the base station uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where thefirst coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are different technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability; the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported is: ifthe feature parameter is less than or equal to the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 1, and if the feature parameter is greater than the featureparameter threshold, the base station supports transmitting a secondsignal in a signal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1and the second signal in the signal set 2 are different; and the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal is: if the feature parameter is less than or equal tothe feature parameter threshold, the base station supports using afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

With reference to the fourth implementation manner of the sixth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a sixth implementationmanner of the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to a first feature parameter set, the basestation uses a first coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to a second featureparameter set, the base station uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare different technologies for improving signal transmissionreliability; the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asecond signal of which transmission is supported is: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different; and the preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a supported function of the third signal is: ifthe feature parameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, thebase station supports a function in a first function set of the thirdsignal, and if the feature parameter belongs to the second featureparameter set, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

With reference to the fifth implementation manner of the sixth aspect ofthe embodiments of the present invention or the sixth implementationmanner of the sixth aspect, in a seventh implementation manner of thesixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention, one or more ofthe feature parameter threshold, the signal set 1, the signal set 2, thefirst function set, the second function set, the first feature parameterset and the second feature parameter set are preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or are preset by the system.

With reference to the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the presentinvention, in an eighth implementation manner of the sixth aspect of theembodiments of the present invention, the first signal, the secondsignal, and the third signal are the same or different.

With reference to the eighth implementation manner of the sixth aspectof the embodiments of the present invention, in a ninth implementationmanner of the sixth aspect of the embodiments of the present invention,the first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

It can be seen from the foregoing technical solutions that theembodiments of the present invention have the following advantages.

In the embodiments of the present invention, according to a determinedfeature parameter of UE and a preset correspondence, the UE candetermine a coverage enhancement technology used to transmit a firstsignal, and/or determine a second signal of which transmission issupported, and/or determine a supported function of a third signal. Thatis, according to a current feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, the UE can adaptively determine a coverage enhancementtechnology used to transmit a first signal, and/or determine a secondsignal of which transmission is supported, and/or determine a supportedfunction of a third signal, thereby adapting to different values of afeature parameter, so as to optimize resource utilization of a system,decrease processing complexity, and reduce power consumption.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention or in the prior art more clearly, the following brieflyintroduces the accompanying drawings required for describing theembodiments. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the followingdescription show merely some embodiments of the present invention, and aperson of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings fromthese accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of UE according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a base stationaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of UE according tothe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a base stationaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a signal transmissionmethod according to the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a signaltransmission method according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The following describes the technical solutions in the embodiments ofthe present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in theembodiments of the present invention. Apparently, the describedembodiments are merely some but not all of the embodiments of thepresent invention. All other embodiments obtained by a person ofordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the presentinvention without creative efforts shall fall within the protectionscope of the present invention.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a signal transmissionmethod, user equipment, and a base station. The embodiments of thepresent invention can optimize resource utilization of a system,decrease processing complexity, and reduce power consumption.

Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of UE in the presentinvention, and UE 100 of this embodiment includes a first determiningunit 101, configured to determine a feature parameter of the UE, wherethe feature parameter of the UE refers to: a value or information usedto measure communication quality of the UE, and/or a value orinformation used to measure channel quality of the UE, and/orinformation used to reflect a service feature of the UE.

A first processing unit 102 is configured to: according to the featureparameter of the UE and a preset correspondence, determine a coverageenhancement technology used by the UE to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermine a second signal that the UE supports transmitting, and/ordetermine a function, supported by the UE, of a third signal.

For ease of comprehension, the following describes, by using an actualapplication scenario, an interaction manner between the units of the UE100 in this embodiment:

First, the first determining unit 101 determines a feature parameter ofthe UE, where the feature parameter of the UE refers to a value orinformation used to measure communication quality of the UE, and/or avalue or information used to measure channel quality of the UE, and/orinformation used to reflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The first determining unit 101 may determine the feature parameter ofthe UE according to received signaling that indicates the featureparameter of the UE, where the signaling may be sent by another UE tothe UE of this embodiment, or may be sent by a base station or anothernetwork entity to the UE. Alternatively, the first determining unit 101determines the feature parameter of the UE according to whether adownlink signal can be correctly received. For example, the UE sends anuplink signal to a base station, and if the UE can correctly receive acorresponding downlink signal that is fed back by the base station, thefirst determining unit 101 can determine a current feature parameter ofthe UE (for example, a feature parameter that represents currentcommunication quality). More specifically, when the feature parameter isan enhancement level index (or a repetition level index, a repetitionlevel, or an enhancement level), the uplink signal is a physical randomaccess channel (PRACH), and the downlink signal is a random accessresponse, if the UE successfully receives the random access response orsuccessfully completes a random access process after repeatedly sendingthe PRACH r times on a PRACH resource (a time resource, and/or afrequency resource, and/or a codeword resource) corresponding to theenhancement level index (or the repetition level index, the repetitionlevel, or the enhancement level) x according to a quantity r of PRACHrepetition times that is corresponding to the enhancement level index(or the repetition level index, the repetition level, or the enhancementlevel) x, the UE determines that the feature parameter of the UE is theenhancement level index (or the repetition level index, the repetitionlevel, or the enhancement level) x. Alternatively, the first determiningunit 101 determines the feature parameter of the UE by measuring areceived downlink signal. Specifically, the UE may determine the featureparameter of the UE by measuring a reference signal, a synchronizationsignal, or a physical broadcast channel. Alternatively, the firstdetermining unit 101 determines the feature parameter of the UEautonomously.

After the first determining unit 101 determines the feature parameter ofthe UE, according to the feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, the first processing unit 102 determines a coverageenhancement technology used by the UE to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermines a second signal that the UE supports transmitting, and/ordetermines a function, supported by the UE, of a third signal.

In this embodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by abase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter isgreater than the feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where boththe first coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different converge enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers to that thesignal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types of secondsignals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a samequantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the UE supports usinga function in a first function set of the third signal, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to asecond feature parameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where both the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare technologies for improving signal transmission reliability, and amain difference between the two lies in that they can implementdifferent converge enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where the second signalin the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signal set 2 aredifferent, and the difference herein mainly refers to that the signalset 1 and the second set 2 include different types of second signals,but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a same quantity ofor different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supports a functionin a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportsusing a function in a second function set of the third signal, where thefunction in the first function set and the function in the secondfunction set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the UE supports transmission of a signalin the signal set 2, it indicates that the UE does not supporttransmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set 1 or thesignal set 2 includes one or more types of the following signals: aphysical downlink control channel, an enhanced physical downlink controlchannel, a physical random access channel, a physical control formatindicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicatorchannel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, a broadcast ormulticast physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink sharedchannel, a physical uplink control channel, a synchronization channel, aphysical broadcast channel, a common reference signal, a demodulationreference signal, a dedicated reference signal, a random access responsemessage, a random access response acknowledgment message, a contentionresolution message, system information, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

After the first determining unit 101 determines the feature parameter ofthe UE, the first processing unit 102 may determine, according to thepreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal, acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal and that corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE; and/orthe first processing unit 102 determines, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, a second signal to which the featureparameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmission of the secondsignal is supported by the feature parameter; and/or the firstprocessing unit 102 determines, according to the preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a supported function of the thirdsignal, a supported function that is corresponding to the featureparameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by theUE according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the UE totransmit the first signal, and/or determining the second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determining the function, supported bythe UE, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the first determining unit 101 determines that a coverage enhancementvalue of the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB), the first processing unit 102 determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a coverage enhancementtechnology that is used to transmit the first signal, that the firstcoverage enhancement technology is used to transmit the first signal. Ifthe first determining unit 101 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than XdB and less than or equal to Y dB), the first processing unit 102determines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, that the second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TTI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel (PUCCH), and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If the coverage enhancement value determined by the firstdetermining unit 101 is 3 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value isless than 5 dB, the first processing unit 102 determines that therelaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping) is used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement for the PUCCH. If the coverage enhancement valuedetermined by the first determining unit 101 is 8 dB, that is, thecoverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (oris greater than 5 dB), the first processing unit 102 determines that therelaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping) and repeatedtransmission are used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement for thePUCCH.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel (PBCH), and the base station or the system specifiesin advance: when a coverage enhancement value is C dB, keep trying isused to perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when the coverage enhancementvalue is D dB, keep trying and retransmission are used to perform PBCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, C and/or D are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that C=10,and D=15. If the first determining unit 101 determines that the coverageenhancement value is 10 dB, the first processing unit 102 determinesthat keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for thePBCH, and the first processing unit 102 keeps trying PBCH detection todetect the PBCH. If the first determining unit 101 determines that thecoverage enhancement value is 15 dB, the first processing unit 102determines that keep trying and retransmission are used to perform PBCHcoverage enhancement for the PBCH, and the first processing unit 102keeps trying repetition of PBCH detection to detect the PBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1; when thecoverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the first determining unit 101 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB), the first processing unit 102 determines,according to the correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported, that transmission of thesecond signal in the signal set 1 is supported. If the first determiningunit 101 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is YdB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than orequal to Y dB), the first processing unit 102 determines, according tothe correspondence between a feature parameter and a second signal ofwhich transmission is supported, that transmission of the second signalin the signal set 2 is supported.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel (PHICH), and the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 2 is a PBCH. The base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signal in the signalset 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater thanX dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB),transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the coverageenhancement value determined by the first determining unit 101 is 3 dB,that is, the coverage enhancement value is less than 5 dB, the firstprocessing unit 102 determines that the PBCH and PHICH can be supported.If the coverage enhancement value determined by the first determiningunit 101 is 8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is greaterthan 5 dB and less than 10 dB, the first processing unit 102 determinesthat the PBCH is supported, that is, the first processing unit 102determines that the PHICH is not supported.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than XdB), transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the UE 1determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) can be supported. If thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB, the UE 1 determines thatthe coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and lessthan 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), and the UE 1 determines thattransmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is not supported, thatis, the UE 1 determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) is not supported.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports a function in a first function set of the third signal; whenthe coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supports afunction in a second function of the third signal. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the first determining unit 101 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB), the first processing unit 102 determines,according to the correspondence between a feature parameter and asupported function of the third signal, that the function in the firstfunction set of the third signal is supported. If the first determiningunit 101 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is YdB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than orequal to Y dB), the first processing unit 102 determines, according tothe correspondence between a feature parameter and a supported functionof the third signal, that the function in the second function set of thethird signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the coverageenhancement value determined by the first determining unit 101 is 3 dB,that is, the coverage enhancement value is less than 5 dB, the firstprocessing unit 102 determines that the following functions of the PUCCHare supported: the function of reporting channel quality information,the scheduling request function, and the function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received. Ifthe coverage enhancement value determined by the first determining unit101 is 8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the first processingunit 102 determines that the scheduling request function and thefunction of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signalis correctly received of the PUCCH are supported.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, a first processing unit may adaptively determinea coverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signalbetween the UE and a base station, and/or determine a second signal ofwhich transmission is supported between the UE and a base station,and/or determine a supported function of a third signal, therebyadapting to different feature parameters, so as to optimize resourceutilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, and reducepower consumption.

The following describes a base station provided by an embodiment of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 2, a base station 200 of thisembodiment includes: a second determining unit 201, configured todetermine a feature parameter of UE, where the feature parameter of theUE refers to: a value or information used to measure communicationquality of the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channelquality of the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE; and a second processing unit 202, configured to: according tothe feature parameter of the UE and a preset correspondence, determine acoverage enhancement technology used by the base station to transmit afirst signal, and/or determine a second signal that the base stationsupports transmitting, and/or determine a function, supported by thebase station, of a third signal.

For ease of comprehension, the following describes, by using an actualapplication scenario, an interaction manner between the units of thebase station 200 in this embodiment:

The UE in this embodiment refers to one or more UEs that communicatewith the base station 200. For the purpose of simplicity, the UE in thefollowing refers to one UE.

First, the second determining unit 201 determines a feature parameter ofUE, where the feature parameter of the UE refers to a value orinformation used to measure communication quality of the UE, and/or avalue or information used to measure channel quality of the UE, and/orinformation used to reflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The second determining unit 201 may determine the feature parameter ofthe UE according to received signaling that indicates the featureparameter of the UE, where the signaling may be sent by the UE oranother network entity to the base station. Alternatively, the seconddetermining unit 201 determines the feature parameter of the UEaccording to whether an uplink signal can be correctly received. Forexample, the base station sends a downlink signal to the UE, and if thebase station can correctly receive a corresponding uplink signal that isfed back by the UE, the second determining unit 201 can determine acurrent feature parameter of the UE (for example, a feature parameterthat represents current communication quality). Alternatively, thesecond determining unit 201 determines the feature parameter of the UEby measuring a received uplink signal. Alternatively, the seconddetermining unit 201 determines the feature parameter of the UEautonomously.

After the second determining unit 201 determines the feature parameterof the UE, according to the feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, the second processing unit 202 determines a coverageenhancement technology used by the base station to transmit a firstsignal, and/or determines a second signal that the base station supportstransmitting, and/or determines a function, supported by the basestation, of a third signal.

In this embodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by thebase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the base station uses a first coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation uses a second coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, where both the first coverage enhancement technology andthe second coverage enhancement technology are technologies forimproving signal transmission reliability, and a main difference betweenthe two lies in that they can implement different converge enhancementintensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1 and the secondsignal in the signal set 2 are different, and the difference hereinmainly refers to that the signal set 1 and the second set 2 includedifferent types of second signals, but the signal set 1 and the secondset 2 may include a same quantity of or different quantities of secondsignals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the base stationsupports using a function in a first function set of the third signal,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the base station uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameterbelongs to a second feature parameter set, the base station uses asecond coverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal,where both the first coverage enhancement technology and the secondcoverage enhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different coverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers tothat the signal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types ofsecond signals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include asame quantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the base station supports afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the base stationsupports using a function in a second function set of the third signal,where the function in the first function set and the function in thesecond function set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the base station supports transmission ofa signal in the signal set 2, it indicates that the base station doesnot support transmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set1 or the signal set 2 includes one or more types of the followingsignals: a physical downlink control channel, an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel, a physical random access channel, a physicalcontrol format indicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeatrequest indicator channel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, abroadcast or multicast physical downlink shared channel, a physicaluplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, asynchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, a commonreference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicated referencesignal, a random access response message, a random access responseacknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

After the second determining unit 201 determines the feature parameterof the UE, the second processing unit 202 may determine, according tothe preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal, acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal and that corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE; and/orthe second processing unit 202 determines, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, a second signal to which the featureparameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmission of the secondsignal is supported by the feature parameter; and/or the secondprocessing unit 202 determines, according to the preset correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a supported function of the thirdsignal, a supported function that is corresponding to the featureparameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by thebase station according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the basestation to transmit the first signal, and/or determining the secondsignal that the base station supports transmitting, and/or determiningthe function, supported by the base station, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the second determining unit 201 determines that a coverageenhancement value of UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less thanor equal to X dB), the second processing unit 202 determines, accordingto the correspondence between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal, thatthe first coverage enhancement technology is used to transmit the firstsignal during communication with the UE. If the second determining unit201 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (oris greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal toY dB), the second processing unit 202 determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a coverage enhancementtechnology that is used to transmit the first signal, that the secondcoverage enhancement technology is used to transmit the first signalduring communication with the UE.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TTI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel PUCCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If the second determining unit 201 determines that a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, that is, the coverage enhancementvalue is less than 5 dB, the second processing unit 202 determines thatthe relaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping) is used to performPUCCH coverage enhancement for the PUCCH, and the second processing unit202 correspondingly receives the PUCCH in this manner. If the seconddetermining unit 201 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE2 is 8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dBand less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the second processingunit 202 determines that the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCH coverageenhancement for the PUCCH, and the second processing unit 202correspondingly receives the PUCCH in this manner.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel PBCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is not greater than C dB,keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is not greater than D dB, keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement. Herein, Cand/or D are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that C=10, and D=15. If the seconddetermining unit 201 determines that a current coverage enhancementvalue of UE (one UE or multiple UEs) is not greater than 10 dB, thesecond processing unit 202 determines that keep trying is used toperform PBCH coverage enhancement for the PBCH. If the seconddetermining unit 201 determines that a current coverage enhancementvalue of UE (one UE or multiple UEs) is not greater than 15 dB, thesecond determining unit 201 determines that keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for thePBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the second determining unit 201 determines that a coverageenhancement value of UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less thanor equal to X dB), the second processing unit 202 determines, accordingto the correspondence between a feature parameter and a second signal ofwhich transmission is supported, that transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported during communication with the UE. Ifthe second determining unit 201 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than XdB and less than or equal to Y dB), the second processing unit 202determines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a second signal of which transmission is supported, thattransmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supportedduring communication with the UE.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel PHICH, and the second signal in the signal set 2 is aPBCH. The base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, transmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 issupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), transmission ofthe second signal in the signal set 2 is supported. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example, it isspecified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverage enhancement valueof UE 1 is 3 dB, the second determining unit 201 determines that thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore,the second processing unit 202 determines that the PBCH and the PHICHcan be supported during communication with the UE 1. If the seconddetermining unit 201 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE2 is 8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value of the UE 2 isgreater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB, the second processing unit 202determines that the PBCH is supported during communication with the UE2, that is, it is determined the PHICH is not supported duringcommunication with the UE 2.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than XdB), transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the seconddetermining unit 201 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE1 is 3 dB, that is, it is determined that the coverage enhancement valueof the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, the second processing unit 202 determinesthat the PUCCH (or the PHICH) can be supported during communication withthe UE 1. If the second determining unit 201 determines that thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB, that is, the coverageenhancement value is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or isgreater than 5 dB), the second processing unit 202 determines thattransmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is not supported duringcommunication with the UE 1, that is, the PUCCH (or the PHICH) is notsupported during communication between the base station and the UE 1.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the basestation supports a function in a first function set of the third signal;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports a function in a second function of the third signal. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the second determining unit 201 determines that a coverageenhancement value of UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less thanor equal to X dB), the second processing unit 202 determines, accordingto the correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal, that the function in the first functionset of the third signal is supported. If the second determining unit 201determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or isgreater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to YdB), the second processing unit 202 determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal, that the function in the second function set of thethird signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the second determiningunit 201 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB,that is, it is determined that the coverage enhancement value of the UE1 is less than 5 dB, the second processing unit 202 determines that thefollowing functions of the PUCCH are supported during communication withthe UE 1: the function of reporting channel quality information, thescheduling request function, and the function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received. Ifthe second determining unit 201 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue of the UE 1 is 8 dB, that is, it is determined that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB(or is greater than 5 dB), the second processing unit 202 determinesthat the scheduling request function and the function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received of thePUCCH are supported during communication with the UE 1.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, a second processing unit may adaptively determinea coverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signalbetween the UE and the base station, and/or determine a second signal ofwhich transmission is supported between the UE and the base station,and/or determine a supported function of a third signal, therebyadapting to different feature parameters of the UE, so as to optimizeresource utilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, andreduce power consumption.

The following describes another embodiment of UE according to thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 3, UE 300 of this embodimentincludes: a first memory 301, configured to store a presetcorrespondence; and a first processor 302, configured to determine afeature parameter of the UE, where the feature parameter of the UErefers to: a value or information used to measure communication qualityof the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channel qualityof the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service feature of theUE; and according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, determine a coverage enhancement technology used by theUE to transmit a first signal, and/or determine a second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determine a function, supported by theUE, of a third signal.

For ease of comprehension, the following describes, by using an actualapplication scenario, an interaction manner between the units of the UE300 in this embodiment:

A preset correspondence is stored in the first memory 301. In thisembodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by abase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter isgreater than the feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where boththe first coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different coverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers to that thesignal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types of secondsignals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a samequantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the UE supports usinga function in a first function set of the third signal, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to asecond feature parameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where both the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare technologies for improving signal transmission reliability, and amain difference between the two lies that they can implement differentcoverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where the second signalin the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signal set 2 aredifferent, and the difference herein mainly refers to that the signalset 1 and the second set 2 include different types of second signals,but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a same quantity ofor different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supports a functionin a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportsusing a function in a second function set of the third signal, where thefunction in the first function set and the function in the secondfunction set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the UE supports transmission of a signalin the signal set 2, it indicates that the UE does not supporttransmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set 1 or thesignal set 2 includes one or more types of the following signals: aphysical downlink control channel, an enhanced physical downlink controlchannel, a physical random access channel, a physical control formatindicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicatorchannel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, a broadcast ormulticast physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink sharedchannel, a physical uplink control channel, a synchronization channel, aphysical broadcast channel, a common reference signal, a demodulationreference signal, a dedicated reference signal, a random access responsemessage, a random access response acknowledgment message, a contentionresolution message, system information, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

The first processor 302 determines a feature parameter of the UE, wherethe feature parameter of the UE refers to a value or information used tomeasure communication quality of the UE, and/or a value or informationused to measure channel quality of the UE, and/or information used toreflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The first processor 302 may determine the feature parameter of the UEaccording to received signaling that indicates the feature parameter ofthe UE, where the signaling may be sent by another UE to the UE of thisembodiment, or may be sent by the base station or another network entityto the UE. Alternatively, the first processor 302 determines the featureparameter of the UE according to whether a downlink signal can becorrectly received. For example, the UE sends an uplink signal to thebase station, and if the UE can correctly receive a correspondingdownlink signal that is fed back by the base station, the firstprocessor 302 can determine a current feature parameter of the UE (forexample, a feature parameter that represents current communicationquality). Alternatively, the first processor 302 determines the featureparameter of the UE by measuring a received downlink signal.Alternatively, the first processor 302 determines the feature parameterof the UE autonomously.

After determining the feature parameter of the UE, according to thefeature parameter of the UE and the preset correspondence, the firstprocessor 302 determines a coverage enhancement technology used by theUE to transmit a first signal, and/or determines a second signal thatthe UE supports transmitting, and/or determines a function, supported bythe UE, of a third signal.

After the first processor 302 determines the feature parameter of theUE, the first processor 302 may determine, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a coverage enhancementtechnology that is used to transmit the first signal, a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal andthat corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE; and/or the firstprocessor 302 determines, according to the preset correspondence betweena feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or the first processor 302 determines,according to the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asupported function of the third signal, a supported function that iscorresponding to the feature parameter of the UE and is of the thirdsignal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following:

a physical downlink control channel, an enhanced physical downlinkcontrol channel, a physical random access channel, a physical controlformat indicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, abroadcast or multicast physical downlink shared channel, a physicaluplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, asynchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, a commonreference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicated referencesignal, a random access response message, a random access responseacknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by theUE according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the UE totransmit the first signal, and/or determining the second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determining the function, supported bythe UE, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the first processor 302 determines that a coverage enhancement valueof the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to XdB), the first processor 302 determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology thatis used to transmit the first signal, that the first coverageenhancement technology is used to transmit the first signal. If thefirst processor 302 determines that the coverage enhancement value ofthe UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB), the first processor 302 determines,according to the correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, that the second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TTI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel PUCCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If the coverage enhancement value determined by the firstprocessor 302 is 3 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is lessthan 5 dB, the first processor 302 determines that the relaxingrequirement (and/or frequency hopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverageenhancement for the PUCCH. If the coverage enhancement value determinedby the first processor 302 is 8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancementvalue is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5dB), the first processor 302 determines that the relaxing requirement(and/or frequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to performPUCCH coverage enhancement for the PUCCH.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel PBCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is C dB, keep trying is usedto perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when the coverage enhancementvalue is D dB, keep trying and retransmission are used to perform PBCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, C and/or D are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that C=10,and D=15. If the first processor 302 determines that the coverageenhancement value is 10 dB, the first processor 302 determines that keeptrying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for the PBCH, andthe first processor 302 keeps trying PBCH detection to detect the PBCH.If the first processor 302 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue is 15 dB, the first processor 302 determines that keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for thePBCH, and the first processor 302 keeps trying repetition of PBCHdetection to detect the PBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1; when thecoverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the first processor 302 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue of the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB), the first processor 302 determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, that transmission of the second signal in thesignal set 1 is supported. If the first processor 302 determines thatthe coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than XdB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the firstprocessor 302 determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, that transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 issupported.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel PHICH, and the second signal in the signal set 2 is aPBCH. The base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, transmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 issupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), transmission ofthe second signal in the signal set 2 is supported. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example, it isspecified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the coverage enhancementvalue determined by the first processor 302 is 3 dB, that is, thecoverage enhancement value is less than 5 dB, the first processor 302determines that the PBCH and PHICH can be supported. If the coverageenhancement value determined by the first processor 302 is 8 dB, thatis, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dB and less than 10dB, the first processor 302 determines that the PBCH is supported, thatis, the first processor 302 determines that the PHICH is not supported.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than XdB), transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the UE 1determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) can be supported. If thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB, the UE 1 determines thatthe coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and lessthan 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), and the UE 1 determines thattransmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is not supported, thatis, the UE 1 determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) is not supported.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports a function in a first function set of the third signal; whenthe coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supports afunction in a second function of the third signal. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the first processor 302 determines that a coverage enhancement valueof the UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to XdB), the first processor 302 determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a supported function of the thirdsignal, that the function in the first function set of the third signalis supported. If the first processor 302 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the first processor302 determines, according to the correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal, that thefunction in the second function set of the third signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the coverageenhancement value determined by the first processor 302 is 3 dB, thatis, the coverage enhancement value is less than 5 dB, the firstprocessor 302 determines that the following functions of the PUCCH aresupported: the function of reporting channel quality information, thescheduling request function, and the function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received. Ifthe coverage enhancement value determined by the first processor 302 is8 dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dB andless than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the first processor 302determines that the scheduling request function and the function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived of the PUCCH are supported.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, a first processor may adaptively determine acoverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signal betweenthe UE and a base station, and/or determine a second signal of whichtransmission is supported between the UE and a base station, and/ordetermine a supported function of a third signal, thereby adapting todifferent feature parameters, so as to optimize resource utilization ofa system, decrease processing complexity, and reduce power consumption.

The following describes another embodiment of a base station accordingto the present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, a base station 400 ofthis embodiment includes: a second memory 401, configured to store apreset correspondence; and a second processor 402, configured todetermine a feature parameter of UE, where the feature parameter of theUE refers to: a value or information used to measure communicationquality of the UE, and/or a value or information used to measure channelquality of the UE, and/or information used to reflect a service featureof the UE; and according to the feature parameter of the UE and thepreset correspondence, determine a coverage enhancement technology usedby the base station to transmit a first signal, and/or determine asecond signal that the base station supports transmitting, and/ordetermine a function, supported by the base station, of a third signal.

For ease of comprehension, the following describes, by using an actualapplication scenario, an interaction manner between the units of thebase station 400 in this embodiment:

The UE in this embodiment refers to UE that communicates with the basestation 400.

A preset correspondence is stored in the second memory 401. In thisembodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by thebase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the base station uses a first coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation uses a second coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, where both the first coverage enhancement technology andthe second coverage enhancement technology are technologies forimproving signal transmission reliability, and a main difference betweenthe two lies in that they can implement different converge enhancementintensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1 and the secondsignal in the signal set 2 are different, and the difference hereinmainly refers to that the signal set 1 and the second set 2 includedifferent types of second signals, but the signal set 1 and the secondset 2 may include a same quantity of or different quantities of secondsignals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the base stationsupports using a function in a first function set of the third signal,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the base station uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameterbelongs to a second feature parameter set, the base station uses asecond coverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal,where both the first coverage enhancement technology and the secondcoverage enhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different coverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers tothat the signal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types ofsecond signals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include asame quantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the base station supports afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the base stationsupports using a function in a second function set of the third signal,where the function in the first function set and the function in thesecond function set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the base station supports transmission ofa signal in the signal set 2, it indicates that the base station doesnot support transmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set1 or the signal set 2 includes one or more types of the followingsignals: a physical downlink control channel, an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel, a physical random access channel, a physicalcontrol format indicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeatrequest indicator channel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, abroadcast or multicast physical downlink shared channel, a physicaluplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, asynchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, a commonreference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicated referencesignal, a random access response message, a random access responseacknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

The second processor 402 determines a feature parameter of the UE, wherethe feature parameter of the UE refers to a value or information used tomeasure communication quality of the UE, and/or a value or informationused to measure channel quality of the UE, and/or information used toreflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The second processor 402 may determine the feature parameter of the UEaccording to received signaling that indicates the feature parameter ofthe UE, where the signaling may be sent by the UE or another networkentity to the base station. Alternatively, the second processor 402determines the feature parameter of the UE according to whether anuplink signal can be correctly received. For example, the base stationsends a downlink signal to the UE, and if the base station can correctlyreceive a corresponding uplink signal that is fed back by the UE, thesecond processor 402 can determine a current feature parameter of the UE(for example, a feature parameter that represents current communicationquality). Alternatively, the second processor 402 determines the featureparameter of the UE by measuring a received uplink signal.Alternatively, the second processor 402 determines the feature parameterof the UE autonomously.

After determining the feature parameter of the UE, according to thefeature parameter of the UE and the preset correspondence, the secondprocessor 402 determines a coverage enhancement technology used by thebase station to transmit a first signal, and/or determines a secondsignal that the base station supports transmitting, and/or determines afunction, supported by the base station, of a third signal.

After the second processor 402 determines the feature parameter of theUE, the second processor 402 may determine, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a coverage enhancementtechnology that is used to transmit the first signal, a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal andthat corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE; and/or the secondprocessor 402 determines, according to the preset correspondence betweena feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or the second processor 402 determines,according to the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and asupported function of the third signal, a supported function that iscorresponding to the feature parameter of the UE and is of the thirdsignal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by thebase station according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the basestation to transmit the first signal, and/or determining the secondsignal that the base station supports transmitting, and/or determiningthe function, supported by the base station, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the second processor 402 determines that a coverage enhancement valueof UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB),the second processor 402 determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology thatis used to transmit the first signal, that the first coverageenhancement technology is used to transmit the first signal duringcommunication with the UE. If the second processor 402 determines thatthe coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than XdB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the secondprocessor 402 determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, that the second coverage enhancementtechnology is used to transmit the first signal during communicationwith the UE.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TTI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel PUCCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If the second processor 402 determines that a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, that is, the coverage enhancementvalue is less than 5 dB, the second processor 402 determines that therelaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping) is used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement for the PUCCH, and the second processor 402correspondingly receives the PUCCH in this manner. If the secondprocessor 402 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 2 is 8dB, that is, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dB andless than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the second processor 402determines that the relaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping) andrepeated transmission are used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement forthe PUCCH, and the second processor 402 correspondingly receives thePUCCH in this manner.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel PBCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is not greater than C dB,keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is not greater than D dB, keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement. Herein, Cand/or D are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that C=10, and D=15. If the second processor402 determines that a current coverage enhancement value of UE (one UEor multiple UEs) is not greater than 10 dB, the second processor 402determines that keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancementfor the PBCH. If the second processor 402 determines that a currentcoverage enhancement value of UE (one UE or multiple UEs) is not greaterthan 15 dB, the second processor 402 determines that keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for thePBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the second processor 402 determines that a coverage enhancement valueof UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB),the second processor 402 determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, that transmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 issupported during communication with the UE. If the second processor 402determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or isgreater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to YdB), the second processor 402 determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, that transmission of the second signal in thesignal set 2 is supported during communication with the UE.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel PHICH, and the second signal in the signal set 2 is aPBCH. The base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, transmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 issupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), transmission ofthe second signal in the signal set 2 is supported. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example, it isspecified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverage enhancement valueof UE 1 is 3 dB, the second processor 402 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, thesecond processor 402 determines that the PBCH and the PHICH can besupported during communication with the UE 1. If the second processor402 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 2 is 8 dB, thatis, the coverage enhancement value of the UE 2 is greater than 5 dB andless than 10 dB, the second processor 402 determines that the PBCH issupported during communication with the UE 2, that is, it is determinedthe PHICH is not supported during communication with the UE 2.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance that when a coverage enhancement value is greaterthan 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the secondsignal in the signal set 1 is supported; and when the coverageenhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB(or is greater than X dB), transmission of the second signal in thesignal set 2 is supported. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature parameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advancethat X=5, and Y=10. If the second processor 402 determines that acoverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, that is, it is determinedthat the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, thesecond processor 402 determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) can besupported during communication with the UE 1. If the second processor402 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB,that is, the coverage enhancement value is greater than 5 dB and lessthan 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the second processor 402determines that transmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is notsupported during communication with the UE 1, that is, the PUCCH (or thePHICH) is not supported during communication between the base stationand the UE 1.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the basestation supports a function in a first function set of the third signal;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports a function in a second function of the third signal. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the second processor 402 determines that a coverage enhancement valueof UE is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB),the second processor 402 determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a supported function of the thirdsignal, that the function in the first function set of the third signalis supported. If the second processor 402 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the second processor402 determines, according to the correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal, that thefunction in the second function set of the third signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the second processor402 determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, thatis, it is determined that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 isless than 5 dB, the second processor 402 determines that the followingfunctions of the PUCCH are supported during communication with the UE 1:the function of reporting channel quality information, the schedulingrequest function, and the function of feeding back an acknowledgementindicating whether a signal is correctly received. If the secondprocessor 402 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1is 8 dB, that is, it is determined that the coverage enhancement valueof the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than5 dB), the second processor 402 determines that the scheduling requestfunction and the function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicatingwhether a signal is correctly received of the PUCCH are supported duringcommunication with the UE 1.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, a second processor may adaptively determine acoverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signal betweenthe UE and the base station, and/or determine a second signal of whichtransmission is supported between the UE and the base station, and/ordetermine a supported function of a third signal, thereby adapting todifferent feature parameters of the UE, so as to optimize resourceutilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, and reducepower consumption.

The following describes a signal transmission method provided by thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 5, the method can be applied to theUE provided in FIG. 1 or FIG. 3, and an embodiment of the signaltransmission method of the present invention includes: 501: UEdetermines a feature parameter of the UE.

In this embodiment, the feature parameter of the UE refers to a value orinformation used to measure communication quality of the UE, and/or avalue or information used to measure channel quality of the UE, and/orinformation used to reflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The UE may determine the feature parameter of the UE according toreceived signaling that indicates the feature parameter of the UE, wherethe signaling may be sent by another UE to the UE of this embodiment, ormay be sent by a base station or another network entity to the UE.Alternatively, the UE determines the feature parameter of the UEaccording to whether a downlink signal can be correctly received. Forexample, the UE sends an uplink signal to a base station, and if the UEcan correctly receive a corresponding downlink signal that is fed backby the base station, the UE can determine a current feature parameter ofthe UE (for example, a feature parameter that represents currentcommunication quality). Alternatively, the UE determines the featureparameter of the UE by measuring a received downlink signal.Alternatively, the UE determines the feature parameter of the UEautonomously.

502: According to the feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, the UE determines a coverage enhancement technology usedby the UE to transmit a first signal, and/or determines a second signalthat the UE supports transmitting, and/or determines a function,supported by the UE, of a third signal.

In this embodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by abase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the UE uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter isgreater than the feature parameter threshold, the UE uses a secondcoverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal, where boththe first coverage enhancement technology and the second coverageenhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different converge enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where thesecond signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signalset 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers to that thesignal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types of secondsignals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a samequantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the UE supports usinga function in a first function set of the third signal, and if thefeature parameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, theUE supports using a function in a second function set of the thirdsignal, where the function in the first function set and the function inthe second function set are not completely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the UE uses a first coverage enhancement technology totransmit the first signal, and if the feature parameter belongs to asecond feature parameter set, the UE uses a second coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, where both the first coverageenhancement technology and the second coverage enhancement technologyare technologies for improving signal transmission reliability, and amain difference between the two lies in that they can implementdifferent coverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, where the second signalin the signal set 1 and the second signal in the signal set 2 aredifferent, and the difference herein mainly refers to that the signalset 1 and the second set 2 include different types of second signals,but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include a same quantity ofor different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the UE supports a functionin a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the UE supportsusing a function in a second function set of the third signal, where thefunction in the first function set and the function in the secondfunction set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the UE supports transmission of a signalin the signal set 2, it indicates that the UE does not supporttransmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set 1 or thesignal set 2 includes one or more types of the following signals: aphysical downlink control channel, an enhanced physical downlink controlchannel, a physical random access channel, a physical control formatindicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeat request indicatorchannel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, a broadcast ormulticast physical downlink shared channel, a physical uplink sharedchannel, a physical uplink control channel, a synchronization channel, aphysical broadcast channel, a common reference signal, a demodulationreference signal, a dedicated reference signal, a random access responsemessage, a random access response acknowledgment message, a contentionresolution message, system information, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

After determining the feature parameter of the UE, the UE may determine,according to the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit thefirst signal and that corresponds to the feature parameter of the UE;and/or

the UE determines, according to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, a second signal to which the feature parameter of the UEcorresponds, wherein transmission of the second signal is supported bythe feature parameter; and/or the UE determines, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal, a supported function that is corresponding to thefeature parameter of the UE and is of the third signal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by theUE according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the UE totransmit the first signal, and/or determining the second signal that theUE supports transmitting, and/or determining the function, supported bythe UE, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the UE determines that a coverage enhancement value of the UE is X dB(or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEdetermines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, that the first coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. If the UE determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE determines,according to the correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, that the second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel PUCCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If a coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the UE 1determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is less than5 dB, and therefore, the UE 1 determines that the relaxing requirement(and/or frequency hopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancementfor the PUCCH. If a coverage enhancement value of UE 2 is 8 dB, that is,the UE 2 determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 2 isgreater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), the UE2 determines that the relaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping)and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancementfor the PUCCH.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel PBCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is C dB, keep trying is usedto perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when the coverage enhancementvalue is D dB, keep trying and retransmission are used to perform PBCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, C and/or D are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that C=10,and D=15. If UE 1 determines that a coverage enhancement value of the UE1 is 10 dB, the UE 1 determines that keep trying is used to perform PBCHcoverage enhancement for the PBCH, and the UE 1 keeps trying PBCHdetection to detect the PBCH. If the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is 15 dB, the UE 1 determines that keeptrying and retransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancementfor the PBCH, and the UE 1 keeps trying repetition of PBCH detection todetect the PBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1; when thecoverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supportstransmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the UE determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEdetermines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a second signal of which transmission is supported, thattransmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 is supported. Ifthe UE determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB(or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB), the UE determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, that transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 issupported.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel PHICH, and the second signal in the signal set 2 is aPBCH. The base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, transmission of the second signal in the transmission signalset 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater thanX dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB),transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the UE 1determines that the PBCH and the PHICH can be supported. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 2 is 8 dB, the UE 2 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 2 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB,and the UE 2 determines that the PBCH is supported, that is, the UE 2determines that the PHICH is not supported.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than XdB), transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the UE 1determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) can be supported. If thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB, the UE 1 determines thatthe coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and lessthan 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), and the UE 1 determines thattransmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is not supported, thatis, the UE 1 determines that the PUCCH (or the PHICH) is not supported.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEsupports a function in a first function set of the third signal; whenthe coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the UE supports afunction in a second function of the third signal. Herein, X and/or Yare/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the UE determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the UEdetermines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a supported function of the third signal, that the function in thefirst function set of the third signal is supported. If the UEdetermines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or isgreater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to YdB), the UE determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a supported function of the third signal, that thefunction in the second function set of the third signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverage enhancementvalue of UE 1 is 3 dB, that is, the UE 1 determines that the coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is less than 5 dB, the UE 1 determines thatthe following functions of the PUCCH are supported: the function ofreporting channel quality information, the scheduling request function,and the function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received. If the coverage enhancement value of theUE 1 is 8 dB, that is, the UE 1 determines that the coverage enhancementvalue of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or isgreater than 5 dB), the UE 1 determines to support the schedulingrequest function and the function of feeding back an acknowledgementindicating whether a signal is correctly received of the PUCCH.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, the UE may adaptively determine a coverageenhancement technology used to transmit a first signal between the UEand a base station, and/or determine a second signal of whichtransmission is supported between the UE and a base station, and/ordetermine a supported function of a third signal, thereby adapting todifferent feature parameters, so as to optimize resource utilization ofa system, decrease processing complexity, and reduce power consumption.

The following describes another embodiment of a signal transmissionmethod provided by the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, themethod can be applied to the base station provided in FIG. 2 or FIG. 4,and the signal transmission method of this embodiment includes:

601: A base station determines a feature parameter of UE.

The UE in this embodiment refers to UE that communicates with the basestation; in this embodiment, the feature parameter of the UE refers to avalue or information used to measure communication quality of the UE,and/or a value or information used to measure channel quality of the UE,and/or information used to reflect a service feature of the UE.

Specifically, the feature parameter of the UE may include at least oneof the following: a resource, a resource index, a level, a level index,an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, a repetition level, arepetition level index, a quantity of repetition times, an index of aquantity of repetition times, a coverage enhancement value, an index ofa coverage enhancement range, a path loss value, an index of a path lossrange, a reference signal received power value, an index of a referencesignal received power range, a reference signal received quality value,an index of a reference signal received quality range, a channel qualityinformation value, an index of a channel quality information range, aservice type, an index of a service type, a power saving requirement, anindex of a power saving requirement, a delay requirement, an index of adelay requirement, a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, an index of a quantity of times of detecting a pre-specifiedchannel, a mobility requirement, and an index of a mobility requirement.

The base station may determine the feature parameter of the UE accordingto received signaling that indicates the feature parameter of the UE,where the signaling may be sent by the UE or another network entity tothe base station. Alternatively, the base station determines the featureparameter of the UE according to whether an uplink signal can becorrectly received. For example, the base station sends a downlinksignal to the UE, and if the base station can correctly receive acorresponding uplink signal that is fed back by the UE, the base stationcan determine a current feature parameter of the UE (for example, afeature parameter that represents current communication quality).Alternatively, the base station determines the feature parameter of theUE by measuring a received uplink signal. Alternatively, the basestation determines the feature parameter of the UE autonomously.

602: According to the feature parameter of the UE and a presetcorrespondence, the base station determines a coverage enhancementtechnology used by the base station to transmit a first signal, and/ordetermines a second signal that the base station supports transmitting,and/or determines a function, supported by the base station, of a thirdsignal.

In this embodiment, the preset correspondence may be a preset functionrelationship, a preset table relationship, or a preset specificationrelationship, and the preset correspondence may be preconfigured by thebase station by using signaling or may be preset by a system by using astandard protocol.

The preset correspondence refers to a preset correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, a preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a second signal of which transmission is supported, and apreset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal.

Specifically, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter anda coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may be: if the feature parameter is less than or equal to afeature parameter threshold, the base station uses a first coverageenhancement technology to transmit the first signal, and if the featureparameter is greater than the feature parameter threshold, the basestation uses a second coverage enhancement technology to transmit thefirst signal, where both the first coverage enhancement technology andthe second coverage enhancement technology are technologies forimproving signal transmission reliability, and a main difference betweenthe two lies in that they can implement different converge enhancementintensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may be: if the featureparameter is less than or equal to the feature parameter threshold, thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports transmitting a second signal in asignal set 2, where the second signal in the signal set 1 and the secondsignal in the signal set 2 are different, and the difference hereinmainly refers to that the signal set 1 and the second set 2 includedifferent types of second signals, but the signal set 1 and the secondset 2 may include a same quantity of or different quantities of secondsignals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may be: if the feature parameter is lessthan or equal to the feature parameter threshold, the base stationsupports using a function in a first function set of the third signal,and if the feature parameter is greater than the feature parameterthreshold, the base station supports using a function in a secondfunction set of the third signal, where the function in the firstfunction set and the function in the second function set are notcompletely the same.

Besides, the preset correspondence between a feature parameter and acoverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal may also be: if the feature parameter belongs to a first featureparameter set, the base station uses a first coverage enhancementtechnology to transmit the first signal, and if the feature parameterbelongs to a second feature parameter set, the base station uses asecond coverage enhancement technology to transmit the first signal,where both the first coverage enhancement technology and the secondcoverage enhancement technology are technologies for improving signaltransmission reliability, and a main difference between the two lies inthat they can implement different coverage enhancement intensities.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a secondsignal of which transmission is supported may also be: if the featureparameter belongs to the first feature parameter set, the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1, and if thefeature parameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the basestation supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2, wherethe second signal in the signal set 1 and the second signal in thesignal set 2 are different, and the difference herein mainly refers tothat the signal set 1 and the second set 2 include different types ofsecond signals, but the signal set 1 and the second set 2 may include asame quantity of or different quantities of second signals.

The preset correspondence between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal may also be: if the feature parameterbelongs to the first feature parameter set, the base station supports afunction in a first function set of the third signal, and if the featureparameter belongs to the second feature parameter set, the base stationsupports using a function in a second function set of the third signal,where the function in the first function set and the function in thesecond function set are not completely the same.

The foregoing feature parameter threshold, signal set 1, signal set 2,first function set, second function set, first feature parameter set,and second feature parameter set may be preconfigured by the basestation by using signaling or may be preset by the system by using astandard protocol.

For example, the signal set 2 includes fewer signal types than thesignal set 1. The signal set 1 or the signal set 2 may be an empty set.The signal set 1 and the signal set 2 may include completely differentsignals, and in this case, if the base station supports transmission ofa signal in the signal set 2, it indicates that the base station doesnot support transmission of a signal in the signal set 1. The signal set1 or the signal set 2 includes one or more types of the followingsignals: a physical downlink control channel, an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel, a physical random access channel, a physicalcontrol format indicator channel, a physical hybrid automatic repeatrequest indicator channel, a unicast physical downlink shared channel, abroadcast or multicast physical downlink shared channel, a physicaluplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, asynchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, a commonreference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicated referencesignal, a random access response message, a random access responseacknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

In addition, the first function set includes a larger quantity offunctions than the second function set. Specifically, for example, thethird signal is a PUCCH, and the first function set and the secondfunction set include one or more of the following functions: a functionof reporting channel quality information, a scheduling request function,and a function of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether asignal is correctly received; however, the second function set includesa smaller quantity of functions than the first function set.

After determining the feature parameter of the UE, the base station maydetermine, according to the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmitthe first signal, a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal and that corresponds to the feature parameterof the UE; and/or the base station determines, according to the presetcorrespondence between a feature parameter and a second signal of whichtransmission is supported, a second signal to which the featureparameter of the UE corresponds, wherein transmission of the secondsignal is supported by the feature parameter; and/or the base stationdetermines, according to the preset correspondence between a featureparameter and a supported function of the third signal, a supportedfunction that is corresponding to the feature parameter of the UE and isof the third signal.

The first signal, the second signal, and the third signal herein may bethe same or may be different. That is, the first signal and the secondsignal may be the same or may be different; the first signal and thethird signal may be the same or may be different; and the second signaland the third signal may be the same or may be different.

The first signal, the second signal, or the third signal includes atleast one of the following: a physical downlink control channel, anenhanced physical downlink control channel, a physical random accesschannel, a physical control format indicator channel, a physical hybridautomatic repeat request indicator channel, a unicast physical downlinkshared channel, a broadcast or multicast physical downlink sharedchannel, a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink controlchannel, a synchronization channel, a physical broadcast channel, acommon reference signal, a demodulation reference signal, a dedicatedreference signal, a random access response message, a random accessresponse acknowledgment message, a contention resolution message, systeminformation, and a paging message.

By using an example in which the feature parameter of the UE is acoverage enhancement value, the following describes determining, by thebase station according to the feature parameter of the UE and the presetcorrespondence, the coverage enhancement technology used by the basestation to transmit the first signal, and/or determining the secondsignal that the base station supports transmitting, and/or determiningthe function, supported by the base station, of the third signal.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a coverageenhancement technology that is used to transmit the first signal is:when a coverage enhancement value is X dB (or is greater than 0 dB andless than or equal to X dB), a first coverage enhancement technology isused to transmit the first signal; when the coverage enhancement valueis Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less thanor equal to Y dB), a second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefinedfeature threshold.

If the base station determines that a coverage enhancement value of UEis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a coverage enhancement technology that is used totransmit the first signal, that the first coverage enhancementtechnology is used to transmit the first signal during communicationwith the UE. If the base station determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationdetermines, according to the correspondence between a feature parameterand a coverage enhancement technology that is used to transmit the firstsignal, that the second coverage enhancement technology is used totransmit the first signal during communication with the UE.

In this embodiment, the first coverage enhancement technology and thesecond coverage enhancement technology may be one of or a combination ofmultiple of the following technologies: retransmission, spread spectrumtransmission, low bit-rate transmission, transmission time intervalbundling (TTI bundling) transmission, power boosting (power boosting),power spectrum density boosting (PSD boosting), keep trying (keeptrying), relaxing requirement, frequency hopping, and maximum likelihooddetection.

More specifically, for example, the first signal is a physical uplinkcontrol channel PUCCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and lessthan or equal to X dB, the relaxing requirement (and/or frequencyhopping) is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is greater than X dB and less than or equalto Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the relaxing requirement (and/orfrequency hopping) and repeated transmission are used to perform PUCCHcoverage enhancement. Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined featureparameter threshold. For example, it is specified in advance that X=5,and Y=10. If the base station determines that a coverage enhancementvalue of UE 1 is 3 dB, the base station determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the basestation determines that relaxing requirement (and/or frequency hopping)is used to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement for the PUCCH, and thebase station correspondingly receives the PUCCH in this manner. If thebase station determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 2 is 8dB, the base station determines that the coverage enhancement value ofthe UE 2 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5dB), and therefore, the base station determines that relaxingrequirement (and/or frequency hopping) and repeated transmission areused to perform PUCCH coverage enhancement for the PUCCH, and the basestation correspondingly receives the PUCCH in this manner.

Specifically, for another example, the first signal is a physicalbroadcast channel PBCH, and the base station or the system specifies inadvance: when a coverage enhancement value is not greater than C dB,keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement; when thecoverage enhancement value is not greater than D dB, keep trying andretransmission are used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement. Herein, Cand/or D are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that C=10, and D=15. If the base stationdetermines that a current coverage enhancement value of UE (one UE ormultiple UEs) is not greater than 10 dB, the base station determinesthat keep trying is used to perform PBCH coverage enhancement for thePBCH. If the base station determines that a current coverage enhancementvalue of UE (one UE or multiple UEs) is not greater than 15 dB, the basestation determines that keep trying and retransmission are used toperform PBCH coverage enhancement for the PBCH.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a second signalof which transmission is supported is: when a coverage enhancement valueis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station supports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 1;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports transmitting a second signal in a signal set 2. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the base station determines that a coverage enhancement value of UEis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, that transmission of the second signal in the signal set 1 issupported during communication with the UE. If the base stationdetermines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE is Y dB (or isgreater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and less than or equal to YdB), the base station determines, according to the correspondencebetween a feature parameter and a second signal of which transmission issupported, that transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 issupported during communication with the UE.

More specifically, for example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PBCH and a physical hybrid automatic repeat requestindicator channel PHICH, and the second signal in the signal set 2 is aPBCH. The base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, transmission of the second signal in the transmission signalset 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater thanX dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB),transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If a coverageenhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the base station determines that thecoverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore,the base station determines that the PBCH and the PHICH can be supportedduring communication with the UE 1. If the base station determines thata coverage enhancement value of UE 2 is 8 dB, the base stationdetermines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 2 is greaterthan 5 dB and less than 10 dB, and the base station determines that thePBCH is supported during communication with the UE 2, that is, it isdetermined that the PHICH is not supported during communication with theUE 2.

Specifically, for another example, the second signal in the transmissionsignal set 1 is a PUCCH (or a PHICH), and the second signal in thetransmission signal set 2 is a null signal, that is, the transmissionsignal set 2 does not include any signal. The base station or the systemspecifies in advance: when a coverage enhancement value is greater than0 dB and less than or equal to X dB, transmission of the second signalin the signal set 1 is supported; when the coverage enhancement value isgreater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than XdB), transmission of the second signal in the signal set 2 is supported.Herein, X and/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. Forexample, it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the basestation determines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB,the base station determines that the coverage enhancement value of theUE 1 is less than 5 dB, and therefore, the base station determines thatthe PUCCH (or the PHICH) can be supported during communication with theUE 1. If the base station determines that the coverage enhancement valueof the UE 1 is 8 dB, the base station determines that the coverageenhancement value of the UE 1 is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB(or is greater than 5 dB), and the base station determines thattransmission of the signal in the signal set 1 is not supported duringcommunication with the UE 1, that is, the PUCCH (or the PHICH) is notsupported during communication between the base station and the UE 1.

For example, the preset correspondence, specified by the base station orthe system in advance, between a feature parameter and a supportedfunction of the third signal is: when a coverage enhancement value is XdB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), the basestation supports a function in a first function set of the third signal;when the coverage enhancement value is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, oris greater than X dB and less than or equal to Y dB), the base stationsupports a function in a second function of the third signal. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature threshold.

If the base station determines that a coverage enhancement value of UEis X dB (or is greater than 0 dB and less than or equal to X dB), thebase station determines, according to the correspondence between afeature parameter and a supported function of the third signal, that thefunction in the first function set of the third signal is supported. Ifthe base station determines that the coverage enhancement value of theUE is Y dB (or is greater than X dB, or is greater than X dB and lessthan or equal to Y dB), the base station determines, according to thecorrespondence between a feature parameter and a supported function ofthe third signal, that the function in the second function set of thethird signal is supported.

More specifically, for example, the third signal is a PUCCH. The basestation or the system specifies in advance that functions in a firstfunction set of the PUCCH include a function of reporting channelquality information, a scheduling request function, and a function offeeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctlyreceived; functions in a second function set of the PUCCH include ascheduling request function, and a function of feeding back anacknowledgement indicating whether a signal is correctly received.Besides, the base station or the system specifies in advance: when acoverage enhancement value is greater than 0 dB and less than or equalto X dB, the functions in the first function set of the third signal aresupported; when the coverage enhancement value is greater than X dB andless than or equal to Y dB (or is greater than X dB), the functions inthe second function set of the third signal are supported. Herein, Xand/or Y are/is a predefined feature parameter threshold. For example,it is specified in advance that X=5, and Y=10. If the base stationdetermines that a coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is 3 dB, the basestation determines that the coverage enhancement value of UE 1 is lessthan 5 dB, and therefore, the base station determines that the followingfunctions of the PUCCH are supported during communication with the UE 1:the function of reporting channel quality information, the schedulingrequest function, and the function of feeding back an acknowledgementindicating whether a signal is correctly received. If the base stationdetermines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1 is 8 dB, thebase station determines that the coverage enhancement value of the UE 1is greater than 5 dB and less than 10 dB (or is greater than 5 dB), andthe base station determines that the scheduling request function and thefunction of feeding back an acknowledgement indicating whether a signalis correctly received of the PUCCH are supported during communicationwith the UE 1.

It should be noted that the foregoing description of methodimplementation of this embodiment is provided by using an example inwhich the feature parameter is a coverage enhancement value. When thefeature parameter is a level, a level index, a quantity of repetitiontimes, an index of a quantity of repetition times, a resource, aresource index, an enhancement level, an enhancement level index, orother information (which reflects communication quality, channelquality, or a service feature), implementation of this embodiment may beperformed similarly according to the foregoing description, and detailsare not described herein again.

The “transmission” in this embodiment refers to sending or receiving.The “transmit” in this embodiment refers to send or receive.

In this embodiment, according to a current feature parameter of UE and apreset correspondence, a base station may adaptively determine acoverage enhancement technology used to transmit a first signal betweenthe UE and the base station, and/or determine a second signal of whichtransmission is supported between the UE and the base station, and/ordetermine a supported function of a third signal, thereby adapting todifferent feature parameters of the UE, so as to optimize resourceutilization of a system, decrease processing complexity, and reducepower consumption.

In addition, it should be noted that the described apparatus embodimentis merely exemplary. The units described as separate parts may or maynot be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may notbe physical units, may be located in one position, or may be distributedon a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may beselected according to actual needs to achieve the objectives of thesolutions of the embodiments. In addition, in the accompanying drawingsof the apparatus embodiments provided by the present invention,connection relationships between the units indicate that the units havecommunication connections with each other, which may be specificallyimplemented as one or more communications buses or signal cables. Aperson of ordinary skill in the art may understand and implement theembodiments of the present invention without creative efforts.

Based on the description of the foregoing implementation manners, aperson skilled in the art may clearly understand that the presentinvention may be implemented by software in addition to necessaryuniversal hardware, or by dedicated hardware, including anapplication-specific integrated circuit, a dedicated CPU, a dedicatedmemory, a dedicated component, and the like. Generally, any functionsthat can be performed by a computer program can be easily implemented byusing corresponding hardware. Moreover, a specific hardware structureused to achieve a same function may be of various forms, for example, ina form of an analog circuit, a digital circuit, a dedicated circuit, orthe like. However, as for the present invention, software programimplementation is a better implementation manner in most cases. Based onsuch an understanding, the technical solutions of the present inventionessentially or the part contributing to the prior art may be implementedin a form of a software product. The computer software product is storedin a readable storage medium, such as a floppy disk, a USB flash drive,a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), arandom access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), a magnetic disk, or anoptical disc of a computer, and includes several instructions forinstructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, aserver, a network device, and the like) to perform the methods describedin the embodiments of the present invention.

A signal transmission method, user equipment, and a base stationprovided by the embodiments of the present invention are described indetail above. A person of ordinary skill in the art may, based on theidea of the embodiments of the present invention, make modificationswith respect to the specific implementation manners and the applicationscope. Therefore, the content of this specification shall not beconstrued as a limitation to the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a memory comprisinginstructions; and a processor in communications with the memory, whereinthe processor is configured to execute the instructions to: determine anindex of a reference signal received power range of user equipment (UE);and in response to determining that the index of the reference signalreceived power range belongs to a first set, determine that the UEsupports sending channel quality information on Physical uplink controlchannel (PUCCH), sending a scheduling request on PUCCH, and sending afeedback on PUCCH, wherein the feedback indicates whether a signal iscorrectly received; and in response to determining that the index of thereference signal received power range belongs to a second set determinethat the UE supports sending the scheduling request on PUCCH, sendingthe feedback on PUCCH, and determine that the UE does not supportsending the channel quality information on PUCCH.
 2. The apparatusaccording claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to execute theinstructions to: determine index of the reference signal received powerrange by measuring a received downlink signal in response to theapparatus being the UE; or determine the index of the reference signalreceived power range according to received signalling indicating thereference signal received power range in response to the apparatus beinga base station.
 3. A communication method performed in an apparatus,comprising: determining an index of a reference signal received powerrange; and in response to determining that the index of the referencesignal received power range belongs to a first set, determining thatuser equipment (UE) supports sending channel quality information onphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH), sending a scheduling request onPUCCH, and sending a feedback on PUCCH, wherein the feedback indicateswhether a signal is correctly received; and in response to determiningthat the index of the reference signal received power range belongs to asecond set, determining that the UE supports sending the schedulingrequest on PUCCH, sending the feedback on PUCCH, and determining thatthe UE does not support sending the channel quality information onPUCCH.
 4. The communication method according to claim 3, whereindetermining the index of the reference signal received power range ofthe UE comprises: determining the index of the reference signal receivedpower range according to received signalling indicating the referencesignal received power range in response to the apparatus being a basestation; or determining the index of the reference signal received powerrange by measuring a received downlink signal in response to theapparatus being the UE.
 5. A non-transitory computer readable storagemedium, comprising computer program codes which when executed by acomputer processor cause the computer processor to execute the steps of:determining an index of a reference signal received power range of userequipment (UE); and in response to determining that the index of thereference signal received power range belongs to a first set,determining that the UE supports sending channel quality information onphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH), sending a scheduling request onPUCCH, and sending a feedback on PUCCH, wherein the feedback indicateswhether a signal is correctly received; and in response to determiningthat the index of the reference signal received power range belongs to asecond set determining that the UE supports sending the schedulingrequest on PUCCH, sending the feedback on PUCCH, and determining thatthe UE does not support sending the channel quality information onPUCCH.
 6. An apparatus, comprising: a memory comprising instructions;and a processor in communications with the memory, wherein the processoris configured to execute the instructions to: determine a referencesignal received power of user equipment (UE); in response to determiningthat the reference signal received power belongs to a first set,determine that the UE supports sending channel quality information onphysical uplink control channel (PUCCH), sending a scheduling request onPUCCH, and sending a feedback on PUCCH, wherein the feedback indicateswhether a signal is correctly received; and in response to determiningthat the reference signal received power belongs to a second set,determine that the UE supports sending the scheduling request on PUCCH,sending the feedback on PUCCH, and determine that the UE does notsupport sending the channel quality information on PUCCH.
 7. Theapparatus according claim 6, wherein that the reference signal receivedpower belongs to a first set is the reference signal received power noless than a threshold; and wherein that the reference signal receivedpower belongs to a second set is the reference signal received powerless than the threshold.
 8. The apparatus according claim 6, wherein theapparatus is the UE.
 9. A communication method, comprising: determininga reference signal received power of user equipment (UE); in response todetermining that the reference signal received power belongs to a firstset, determine that the UE supports sending channel quality informationon physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), sending a scheduling requeston PUCCH, and sending a feedback on PUCCH, wherein the feedbackindicates whether a signal is correctly received; and in response todetermining that the reference signal received power belongs to a secondset, determine that the UE supports sending the scheduling request onPUCCH, sending the feedback on PUCCH, and determine that the UE does notsupport sending the channel quality information on PUCCH.
 10. Thecommunication method according claim 9, wherein that the referencesignal received power belongs to a first set is the reference signalreceived power no less than a threshold; and wherein the referencesignal received power belongs to a second set is the reference signalreceived power less than the threshold.
 11. The communication methodaccording claim 9, wherein determining the reference signal receivedpower of the UE, comprising: determining the reference signal receivedpower of the UE by measuring a received downlink signal.
 12. Theapparatus according claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a base station orthe UE.
 13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium,comprising computer program codes which when executed by a computerprocessor cause the computer processor to execute the steps of:determining a reference signal received power of user equipment (UE); inresponse to determining that the reference signal received power belongsto a first set, determine that the UE supports sending channel qualityinformation on physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), sending ascheduling request on PUCCH, and sending a feedback on PUCCH, whereinthe feedback indicates whether a signal is correctly received; and inresponse to determining that the reference signal received power belongsto a second set, determine that the UE supports sending the schedulingrequest on PUCCH, sending the feedback on PUCCH, and determine that theUE does not support sending the channel quality information on PUCCH.14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according claim13, wherein that the reference signal received power belongs to a firstset is the reference signal received power no less than a threshold; andwherein the reference signal received power belongs to a second set isthe reference signal received power less than the threshold.